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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Chestnut Cookies


When I saw this cookie on Jennifurla's , I was totally smitten. Chestnut!!! How creative this is.
And with 2 packs of chestnuts that I have, I just can’t give this recipe a miss.

The recipe is adapted from a Russian tea cake/Mexican wedding cake recipe, something similar to our local Kuih Makmur, a popular Raya cookie. So, if you love chestnuts and those said cookies, you shouldn’t not try this.It's not difficult to make, provided if don't need to peel ur own chestnuts.
It dense (not fluffy) due to the moist finely milled chestnuts, but melts in the mouth, plus, it’s wonderfully fragrant with chestnuts.

But one confession to make, Lyanne’s saliva is present in this cookie. When I went to Jusco few days back to do my weekly grocery shopping, Anchor butter was on sale, so I took 6 blocks. While queuing to pay money, Lyanne grabbed a block of butter, unwrapped it and started licking the butter. Lydia screamed ,"Mommy, SEEEEE!!" Lyanne was happily savouring that unfortunate block of butter. I quickly removed it from her, placed the wrapper back on and proceeded to queue. Lyanne screamed at me, asking for that butter back. LOL. It was a funny and ugly sight. Kid screaming for butter at the supermarket, I'm still laughing now.

My kids love butter as much as I do. It’s in the genes. So, when I wanted to make this cookie, I used up the contaminated block first. Anyway, that’s kid’s saliva and it’s baked, so, whatever that might be in there, is already killed. It’s safe! LOL.

All that I got from the recipe, 130 pieces of cookies in raw form

Chestnut Cookies
Loosely adapted  from Smitten Kitchen
Yields: 130pcs smallish cookies the size of a small fishball.

225gm butter, softened
50gm icing sugar
225gm roasted chestnuts (I used packaged roasted chestnuts, pics seen at the bottom of this post, I ate a few, which was why I was left with 225gm)
250gm +50gm cake flour
Icing sugar for coating (won’t need much, but it depends on your coating technique :p)

1. Mill package chestnuts until fine. Mix with 250gm cake flour.
2. Mix butter and icing sugar with a large spoon. No need to beat til fluffy, just mix to combine.
3. Pour half of the chestnut flour into butter mixture and mix. Add in the balance.
4. If dough is too wet and soft, adjust with the 50gm of flour, you may not add all. Some chestnuts are drier and some are wetter.
5. Form small balls of dough, as big as a small fishball, or the size of a small lime.
6. Preheat oven to 180(fan)/200C
7. Arrange on baking pan (1 inch space is enough) and bake for 12 minutes. If your cookies are larger, please extend the time.
8. Place ½ cup icing sugar in a small basin, if icing sugar is clumpy, run it in the mill for a few seconds.
9. When cookies are done, remove from oven. While they are still hot, coat with icing sugar by putting a few of the hot cookies into the icing sugar(8) and move the basin with a sifiting motion to coat. Place sugared cookies back on to tray and let it cool and coat the rest of the cookies in the same way.

in its baked form and the difference of being bare and made up with "powder"


that's the size of my cookie by comparison


I hated the wind when I took these pictures. Blew away all the nice "make up"


33 comments:

  1. Wendy, the cookies look so pretty, like snow ball. I nvr eat chestnut cookies b4, wondering how it taste.

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  2. this looks seriously good! now i must haul myself to the supermarket to get the roasted chestnut!

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  3. Wendy, love this little story. I can imagine her sad look when you took away that butter. hahaha... so cute.

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  4. chestnut!! mmm licking butter kudos to Lyanne ;)

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  5. Hahaha you bake too much when you were pregnant with her that is why she likes the butter so much :p hey this is a real good recipe. I want to try this out for CNY. Thanks Wendy for this recipe. Looks good and where can I get roasted chestnut?

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  6. i swear every time i look at your cookies i gain weight hehe. so happen that i got 2 packets (the one in the middle from your pic). oh no, i don't have food processor...gotta sneak back home and borrow one! no need 2nd coating after cooling, when i made this type of cookies my icing always gone with the wind! so have to do 2nd coating...tedious lah!
    gotta agree with Elin and this is the first time i heard kids licking butter like lollipop. your Lyanne really is amazing and i would luv to see her in a butter ad...sure win!

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  7. Heh your girl is so cute, thanks for sharing this recipe.

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  8. Hi Wendy,
    1. just to confirm if the 250g+50g flour is correct or not. Or did you reduce the original amt of flour (2 cups abt 470g) for a special reason?
    2. is the texture abit on the dry side n crumbles easily? thks for help. Jade

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  9. hahaha...ur daughter certainly loves her butter. This looks so yummy and pretty. Unfortunately roasted chestnuts are quite expensive here in melbourne, can i substitue with other nuts? like almond or hazelnut? Spirit of CNY is truly here.

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  10. Jess Bakericious,
    Like chestnut lor, haha.



    Jess Kitchen,
    Get some!



    Edith,
    She wasn't sad, she was furiously screaming! LOL.



    Swee San,
    Haha, you remember the way she licked the cream off PL's dorayaki? Just like that lor.



    Elin,
    Jusco, above the fruit chiller for packaged ones. Fresh charcoal roasted ones at the food court next to dorayaki stall



    Lisa.L,
    she licked it like ice cream. LOL.



    hanushi,
    u're welcomed



    Jade,
    Measurement from US recipes that comes in cups are always vague to me, so I adjusted the recipe to my liking. I didn't follow her recipe exactly, but I looked at her ingredients and did it my way, with way more chestnuts. The amount of flour to be used depends on how moist ur chestnuts are.
    2 cups of flour can be anywhere from 220-300gm. I have always hated measuring flour with cups.
    My girl has been shaking the cookie container few times demanding that I open it for her, the cookie didn't crumble. Like I said in the post, it's dense but melts in the mouth. Not that fragile.



    Dinewithleny,
    Please refer to a mexican wedding cake recipe (maybe my source's source) if you plan to use real nuts, as I've adjusted this recipe according to the moist chestnut that I have.

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  11. wow yummy! i really salute to those who could stand hours to bake cookies!!!

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  12. Look at your nice CNY cookies, my hand start itchy, hopefully i can make some in next week..

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  13. Jenn@ChasingFoodDreamsJanuary 19, 2011 at 6:22 PM

    oh gosh.. I have to make these.. I luv chestnuts! Reopening cookie production this weekend.. hehehe

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  14. I had never tasted chestnut cookies before. Your cookies look yummy =)

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  15. Thanks for the info..haha yea I remember now since you mentioned it.;) near the foodcourt. Thanks.

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  16. Would like to try these, something different. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

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  17. thanks for the recipe... you live in Ipoh too? well, I have trouble looking for cake flour in the supermarket... may I know where can I get the cake flour in Ipoh?

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  18. babe_kl,
    this didn't take too long as I wasn't making a lot.



    Sonia,
    You've moved in oredi? Haha, using new oven leh.
    Quick quick, tell me how it goes.



    Jenn,
    CNY is still so far away, why close factory so soon?



    Cathy,
    This is my first time tasting one too.



    Elin,
    Those freshly roasted ones are rather pricey, RM6/100gm and it comes with shells. You might need to buy 300gm or more to make this cookie.
    Whereas the packaged one inside Jusco's supermarket cost less than half of the fresh ones.



    Cheah,
    Yeah, never seen before in our local scene.



    pui_san,
    There is cake flour under the brand Nona in supermarkets. I've seen it in Jusco. There is another brand too, I forgot, but I'm very very sure I've seen it there before. Cake flour and Superfine is basically the same stuff.
    If not, go to Wah Seng in town (further down the road from The Store"Ocean"), or Intrico near Woolley to get cake/superfine flour. Intrico is pricier though.

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  19. i would like to give this a try provided i have the time and remember buying chestnuts. this time i must try the packaged ones

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  20. i just sent my above comments here and i saw your comments in my blog..we are really the 'yeh kwai!' haha!!

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  21. that's so COOL and it looks NICE! mont blanc cake, we definitely know and may have tried before. but chestnut cookies! interesting! (: (:

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  22. Reminds me of a type of hard Indian cookies I used to eat when I was a kid! LOL!

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  23. Yah! I loved those, they are from Smitten Kitchen originally! Thanks for the link love I appreciate it!

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  24. I'm so excited to try this out! I love chestnuts and always have packaged ones lying around. These cookies sound so good. I've tried many diff nuts in Russian tea cakes before but never thought to try chestnuts!

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  25. lena,
    Haha, Yeah, I sleep quite late. Love night time more than day. It's above the fruit chiller in Jusco, still saw lots of it yesterday.



    Sweetylicious,
    that was what I thought too when I saw this recipe



    Pete,
    Oh, I know the type u are talking abt. Yeah, looks like it, but no la, this is a lot softer and less sweet.



    Jennifurla,
    I don't follow Smitten Kitchen, but from your blog, I went there to see the original recipe.
    Thanks for the recomendation.



    kirbie,
    It was Smitten Kitchen who thought of using chestnuts in Russian Tea Cakes first.
    Maybe you can try it

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  26. Ooh... I see another unusual cookies for cny! Never seen it nor eaten it before? Is it good?

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  27. Yummy Koh,
    Taste is a personal matter.
    It's good to me and my kids, but to my hubby, he prefers something less floury.

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  28. Hi Wendy,

    Do you have kuih makmur recipe? I plan to bake for coming 2012 cny. Please email to me @ yvonnechan_2000@hotmail.com if you don't mind.
    Thank you so much.

    Yvonne Chan

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  29. Yvonne,
    It's been donkey years since I made kuih makmur and I never use a recipe, just mix, wrap and bake. And it's a verbal instruction given to me by an ex colleague.
    You can mix flour with ghee until a rollable dough forms. Then mix some finely crushed peanuts with caster sugar as filling. Wrap the dough with peanut filling, that's just it. Bake then roll in icing sugar.

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  30. Hi,
    Do you think it will work if I use chestnut paste or chestnut puree instead?
    Thks,
    ST

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  31. Hi Wendy, is that ok to replace the butter with sunflower oil or grape seed oil? Thanks.

    Nicole

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  32. Nicole,
    I have not tried that, but I worry the flavour might turn out quite bland. As chestnuts unlike almonds or peanuts, do not exude a strong fragrance

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